When Miami police shot a naked man to stop a vicious, public and unprovoked attack of a homeless man in the shadows of The Miami Herald building, our journalists were confronted with almost daily questions:

How much information is too much information? Which photos do you publish?
[...]
As we work to provide the details, we’ll continue these discussions in the newsroom as we straddle the fine line between informing and offending our readers.

-Miami Herald executive editor Mindy Marques on the challenges her staff faced in covering the horrific Memorial day weekend attack on Eugene Poppo. June 17, 2012

Wednesday, Marques and her staff finally crossed that "fine line" between journalism and exploitation with this tweet.

But as I watched bits and pieces of today's love fest, not one TV talking head bothered to remind viewers that the American Airlines Arena where the Heat play, is essentially "a playground for millionaire athletes and their billionaire owner."

That's how CBS4's Jim DeFede described the Triple A in 2011 when he reported "in the late Nineties as the Heat’s owner Micky Arison lobbied for a new arena, he sweetened the deal for county officials by promising that if the arena generated more than $14 million a year in profit they would share 40 percent of that money with the county."

...in the last eleven years, Miami-Dade County has not received a single penny from the Miami Heat under the revenue sharing provision of their arena contract.

According to the financial statements the Miami Heat provides to the county every year, the arena just isn’t profitable enough – at least not on paper.

Last year, the arena generated more than $53 million in revenue – that includes everything from those over priced hot dogs to the luxury suites that circle the court to the $6.4 million in subsidies county taxpayers provide. This includes revenue that comes in not only for Heat games, but also concerts, the circus and corporate events.

On the other side of the ledger, the arena showed $32 million in expenses.

Now you might think that means they had $21 million in profit last year and the county was therefore entitled to some of that money. But unfortunately for Dade County the Heat took a $14 million in amortized arena costs.

What is that? Well, CBS4 asked the county that question, a county spokeswoman sent us the following response:

"County staff cannot answer why Basketball Property Limited (BPL) amortizes items as they appear in the financial statements. You can contact Eric Woolworth, President of Business Operations, Basketball Properties Ltd., for clarification."
[...]
The most fascinating aspect of that answer is the willingness of the county to simply abdicate any responsibility they might have in making sure they are not losing a possible source of money.

That last sentence is important. Because that's exactly what a Miami-Dade inspector general’s audit concluded in a report released last month.

A Miami-Dade inspector general’s audit of the AmericanAirlines Arena operating agreement with the Miami Heat blasts the county for “poorly performing” administrative oversight and paying little attention to the Heat’s annual budget.

The pointed, 60-page document released Thursday faults Miami-Dade for having “little idea” about whether the team has met financial benchmarks that would trigger profit-sharing from the county-owned arena.

Though the Heat’s operating budget is consistently submitted late, it has never faced repercussions from the county. And the county apparently wasn’t aware the Heat was required to submit an annual budget for big-ticket capital expenditures, the audit states.

“The county’s hands-off approach to an operation that now generates more than $60 million a year is perplexing, especially an operation that has yet to produce sufficient profits to result in profit-sharing,” Inspector General Christopher Mazzella wrote.

So, who's to blame for this fiasco?

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez says don't blame him.

“We found out really the previous administration did not have the proper oversight, when the reports came in nobody looked at them, nobody questioned them,” the mayor told CBS4’s Jim DeFede. “But we’ve already changed those procedures and it’s not going to happen under this administration.”

That's great Mr. Mayor! And that means the Miami Heat is finally going to start paying its fair share?

After watching the insipid, childish cheerleading that took place last week on many of Miami's TV stations; I was beginning to despair there was no one left in Miami who remembered how to tell a story with a camera without getting in the way of the story.

Throughout the Heat's playoff run, the city has been on edge. Miamians wanted a championship so bad they could taste it. This was our year, and we were all confident that our team could do it.

But the one thing we could be sure of was that if and when they won, La Carreta on Bird Road would be flooded with people celebrating. The sounds of banging pots, honking horns and Spanish music blasting from cars would fill the streets and impromptu parades and conga lines would jam the sidewalks.

Last night, Miami did not disappoint! The Heat ended their glorious Finals run against OKC 4-1, and the Miami community did what it does best: jubilant unapologetic celebration.

Hope Bagozzi, director of marketing for McDonald’s Canada, walks viewers through the studio magic used over several hours to plump and primp a Golden Arches burger to its mouthwatering max.

First, Bagozzi picks up a Quarter Pounder with cheese -- likely made within 60 seconds -- from a street-side McDonald’s for comparison. The “steam effect” from the box “makes the bun contract a bit,” she said.

Then Bagozzi heads to the Watt International photo studio, where the same ingredients are being used to carefully craft a similar burger from scratch.

Then food stylists and photographers labor over the sandwich, melting down the cheese with a warmed knife, strategically applying mustard and ketchup with a syringe, slanting the bun to highlight the ingredients.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

What started out as nothing more than a nasty argument outside a Pennsylvania Avenue apartment on South Beach last April, quickly escalated into a full-scale donnybrook, fueled by alcohol and testosterone and possibly exacerbated by some Miami Beach cops who were in no mood to extend a little professional courtesy to a fellow officer.

When it was over, the cops ended up taking a West Palm Beach police officer and his "on-again, off-again" girlfriend - herself a former West Palm Beach police officer - to jail.

The episode began as one Miami Beach cop - in full Inspector Clouseau mode - hid behind some shrubbery and observed "a loud dispute which appeared to be domestic in nature," according to an arrest report. (Embedded below)

The argument "corrupted the sense of public decency and disturbed the peace on an otherwise quiet night in a residential neighborhood," the indignant officer wrote in his report.

After he'd seen enough, the cop popped out from behind the bushes and confronted Julian Santana, a West Palm Beach police officer. Santana responded by refusing to show his identification.

Christina Arroyo

While this is going on, the cop's "on-again, off-again" girlfriend, former cop Christina Arroyo, started taunting other Miami Beach cops who had responded to the fracas, asking them - according to the arrest form - "If we drank on duty at the Clevelander, if we've run over any tourists with ATV's recently, and if we have shaken down any club owners lately."

When cops finally got the squabbling duo separated and in handcuffs, they charged Arroyo with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence. Santana was charged with hindering/obstructing justice (because of his refusal to show his identification) and resisting arrest without violence.

Miami-Dade County Judge Steve Leifman found Ms. Arroyo not guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting without violence after the court determined that her underlying conduct, which was simply constitutionally protected speech, was legal.

Mr. Santana had his case was dismissed mid-trial after the Court determined that he was legally entitled to refuse the officer's demand for identification. Any subsequent resisting by the defendants was deemed legal, as their arrests were not.

So there you have it boys and girls.

You can talk loud outside your apartment all you want - the Constitution says have the right to do so.

And if you haven't done anything wrong, the police don't have the right to ask for your identification. But if the cops show up and start asking questions...please be nice. That way they'll go away quickly.

I wonder how much this bogus arrest cost the taxpayers of Miami Beach?

According to the arrest reports, at least four Miami Beach police officers, two sergeants and a crime scene technician responded to the April 25, 2012 incident.

God only knows how much the couple spent on legal fees.

I hope that officer Santana and his "on-again, off-again girlfriend" don't get into it again and that they've kissed and made up.

However, officer Santana would do well to heed a few of Chris Rock's tips on how to avoid confrontations with the police...something he should already know, i.e.: Be polite and stay away from crazy women!

This afternoon I talked by phone with the Herald's senior v.p. for operations. He told me he has talked with he guard involved. The executive told me that the guard merely told the blogger that he was on the Herald's property and was advised that it was okay to take pictures from across the street.

The executive stressed that there is no ban on the taking of pictures of the Herald building and "there never has been a ban. But we would prefer that people confine their picture taking to the public sidewalk and not trespass on Herald property," said the executive.

While he didn't say it so in so many words, I have a strong suspicion that the executive has talked to or will be talking with his security guards to let them know that it's perfectly legal for people to take pictures of the building at One Herald Plaza.

I've learned from another source that the Herald apparently uses a combination of staff security guards and guards hired from a private security company.

A personal observation if I may: I think what's needed here is a healthy dose of common sense and common courtesy from both parties: Herald security guards and Miami's budding architectural photographers.

Friday, June 15, 2012

What follows, is the story of what happens when a tiny police department in a relatively crime-free town gets an unlimited budget to buy all the razzle-dazzle crime-fighting gear it wants but doesn't need.

_______________________

The City of Aventura in North Miami Dade County has a population of about 35,000.

The police department in tiny Aventura has a ten-man SWAT Unit complete with a Command vehicle "to handle tactical operations which may be outside the scope of normal patrol activities. The team includes a SWAT medic, two snipers, and two team leaders," according to one description on the Internet. (Click here to see one of Aventura's "snipers" in action!)

That makes sense. Because, as we all know, when al-Qaeda finally comes to South Florida, they're probably heading straight for Aventura.

After all, what better way to bring America to its knees than by hitting the Cajun Grill or Cheesecake Factory at the Aventura Mall or the target-rich fairways at the golf course at the Turnberry Isle Resort?

Aventura's SWAT commander is so proud of his elite, battle-hardened band of brothers, he recently commissioned a professional photographer to take some sexy glamor shots that show off his team's steely resolve.

Photographer Jaime "Nisso" Chalem says on his website that shooting pics of the SWAT team was an "amazing experience."

About the dive team "Nisso" writes, "Besides having all kinds of cool equipment and toys, access to two boats and the super human ability to breath (sic) underwater, these guys do things that would almost make the Navy Seals jealous."

I don't think any military unit is going to be jealous of Aventura's drugstore cowboys.

Any idiot can pose for a camera. It's a little more difficult to produce results, though.

Almost two years ago Aventura's elite SWAT team managed to let a gunman escape in broad daylight after an hours-long stand-off on Biscayne Blvd. Just imagine the outcome had we sent these guys in after Osama bin Laden.

And the rest of this Keystone Cops-style police department ain't much better.

But, how dangerous a place can Aventura be when the address of its police department is 19200 West Country Club Drive and within spitting distance of a world-class golf course?

Note to Aventura SWAT's Sgt. Cosimo Castronovo: If you and your boys think that posing with all your toys makes you bad-ass, you're sadly mistaken. If you're really in charge of a macho, combat-ready outfit, why not arrange to hang out with some guys who are the real deal?

How about you and the boys spending a month or two training with these guys?

Can you cut it? I doubt it.

Until you do, Sarge, no matter how many pretty pictures you pose for, you and your crew will still be mall cops.

Five men, one of whom said he is a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, were arrested at 2:30 a.m. yesterday in what authorities described as an elaborate plot to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee here.

Three of the men were native-born Cubans and another was said to have trained Cuban exiles for guerrilla activity after the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
[...]

* Edward Martin, alias James W. McCord, of New York City and perhaps the Washington metropolitan area. Martin said in court yesterday that he retired from the CIA two years ago. He said he presently is employed as a "security consultant."

* Frank Sturgis of 2515 NW 122d St., Miami. Prosecutors said that an FBI check on Sturgis showed that he had served in the Cuban Military army intelligence in 1958, recently traveled to Honduras in Central America, and presently is the agent for a Havana salvage agency. He has a home and family in Miami. Sturgis also was once charged with a gun violation in Miami, according to FBI records.

* Eugenio R. Martinez of 4044 North Meridian Ave., Miami. Prosecutors said that Martinez violated the immigration laws in 1958 by flying in a private plane to Cuba. He is a licensed real estate agent and a notary public in Florida.

* Virgilio R. Gonzales [Editor's Note: Spelling was corrected in subsequent stories to Gonzalez] of 930 NW 23d Ave., Miami. In Miami yesterday, his wife told a Washington Post reporter that her husband works as a locksmith at the Missing Link Key Shop. Harry Collot, the shop owner, said that Gonzales was scheduled to work yesterday but didn't show up. "He's done it before, but it's not a regular thing," Collot said. He said he thought Gonzales came to America about the time Fidel Castro became well-known, and began working for Missing Links sometime in 1959. He described Gonzales as "pro-American and anti-Castro...he doesn't rant or rave like some of them do."

* Bernard L. Barker of 5229 NW 4th St., Miami. Douglas Caddy, one of the attorneys for the five men, told a reporter that shortly after 3 a.m. yesterday, he received a call from Barker's wife. "She said that her husband told her to call me if he hadn't called her by 3 a.m.: that it might mean he was in trouble."

All were charged with felonious burglary and with possession of implements of crime. All but Martin were ordered held in $50,000 bail. Martin, who has ties in the area was held in $30,000 bail.

In court yesterday, prosecutors said Sturgis also used the alias Frank Fiorini -- an assertion confirmed by Miami area police.

In 1959, the Federal Aviation Agency identified Fiorini as the pilot of a plane that dropped anti-Castro leaflets over Havana. Described in newspaper clippings as a "soldier of fortune," Fiorini reportedly was head of the International anticommunist Brigade, after the Bay of Pigs invasion, that trained 23 Cuban exiles who in 1962 landed by boat in Cuba's Matanzas Province and set up guerrilla operations.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

It's completely ridiculous for someone to call 911 to inquire whether it really is illegal to grow marijuana for personal usage. But it's completely reasonable to do so if you're in the middle of a SANDWICH EMERGENCY. Which is exactly the situation Rother McLennon found himself in yesterday when his local deli gave him a hard time over his order.

“I specifically asked for little turkey, and little ham, a lot of cheese and a lot of mayonnaise and they are giving me a hard time," McLennon told the 911 dispatcher, complaining about the Greatful Deli in [Connecticut] on Wednesday afternoon. "I wonder if you can stop by and just…” Instead of calling in their elite Sandwich Rescue Service, the incredulous dispatcher just recommended he not buy the sandwich there. But this is not just about today's sandwich: "She's telling me she won't make it for me again, and it's because of that. I just want to solve this the right way...So I'm just wondering if you could come by."

Thursday, June 07, 2012

On Thursday evening's NBC Nightly News, Michael Isikoff reported that "the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, [once] targeted for closure by Barack Obama ... is instead quietly undergoing millions of dollars of upgrades that could allow it to remain open for years as a prison for suspected terrorists."

Among the recent improvements to the facility commonly known as “Gitmo”: a heavily guarded soccer field for detainees known as “Super Rec,” which cost nearly $750,000 and opened this week; cable television in a communal living quarters and “enriching your life” classes for detainees, which include instruction on learning to paint, writing a resume -- even handling personal finances.
[...]
Many of the improvements have been made at the most modern facility in the detention center, known as Camp VI, a communal living compound that houses about 80 percent of the 169 detainees currently held at Gitmo. There, detainees who are deemed to be compliant with the rules and therefore eligible for more privileges are able to watch 21 Cable TV channels, DVD movies, read newspapers and borrow books from a library.
[...]
But for the remainder of the detainees – including some who are eligible for release but have no country willing to take them – there is little prospect of leaving Gitmo anytime soon.

And that means U.S. taxpayers will continue to foot the bill for their presence in a U.S. prison that costs $140 million a year to operate – or some $800,000 per detainee.

...was arrested in September 2011 after a sting operation allegedly caught him in the act of stealing $1,340 from an oxycodone dealer he had just arrested. The dealer was actually an undercover Miami-Dade police officer. According to the Sheriff's Office, the phony suspect had pills and $7,340 in a blue bag when he was taken into custody, but Wooddell only turned in $6,000 when he got to the Deerfield Beach substation.

Officials said the undercover operation was captured on video and audio recordings.

The Sun-Sentinel says Wooddell was suspended without pay and remained free on bond while awaiting trial.

Assistant State Attorney Adriana Alcalde-Padron has argued twice for a revocation of Wooddell's bond. Once for not reporting a traffic accident he was involved in and once for sending intimidating text messages to a witness in his case.

But the third time may be the charm.

Police arrested Wooddell Monday evening at the Cheetah strip club in Pompano Beach. He'd gone there after removing his GPS ankle monitor.

On Tuesday Alcalde-Padron told the Sun-Sentinel, "We have moved to revoke his bond twice. This is his third violation. Hopefully, he will now remain in custody at least until it's time for his trial."

Next up is 19 year-old Juan Felipe Rodriguez.

Yesterday, Rodriguez got into an argument with a parking attendant over an $8 parking fee at Sunset Place in South Miami.

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

via the Daily Show: "Only CNN went full-flotilla with two solid hours covering the orgy of excitement that is Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee."

John Oliver:"It's impossible to look at what's happening here and not think about what it represents: the sad last gasp of a once powerful empire, its best days long behind it, desperately trying to conjure up a happier time when it was something more than a decaying relic."

Jon Stewart:"That is obviously a pretty harsh thing to say about your own homeland."

From the Sun-Sentinel's Sally Kestin: "The Sun Sentinel's investigative series, published in February, used SunPass toll records to determine how fast cops [from various South Florida police agencies] were driving and found almost 800 hit speeds above 90 mph in a 13-month period. Miami officers were among the worst speeders, driving up to 55 mph over the speed limit outside city limits."

Kestin reports:

Fausto Lopez

In the most sweeping crackdown on police speeding yet, Miami's top cop announced on Monday that he is taking action against 36 of his officers for driving off duty at speeds sometimes exceeding 100 mph.

Lopez's headline-generating traffic stop prompted a Sun Sentinel investigation that found widespread off-duty speeding by officers at a dozen South Florida departments. All began internal investigations.

"What the Sun Sentinel has done is a service to all police agencies because if they did not know they had a speeding problem, now they do," said Miami police Chief Manuel Orosa. "I, like most chiefs around, if you ask them everybody's going to tell you, 'We didn't know it was this bad.'"

The chief said he plans to fire one or more officers identified by the newspaper as habitual speeders and is equipping 40 police vehicles with GPS devices to make sure the worst offenders slow down. "The individuals that are in your report will be the first ones to get them," Orosa said.
[...]
Asked if Lopez will lose his job over the speeding, the police chief said, "Stay tuned."